Trinity Episcopal High hosts Plain Dealing today in the MPSA Class A first round playoff contest.

The 4 p.m. game is the first game of a best of three series. The second game will be played Thursday. If a third game is needed, it will follow the second game.

&uot;They had a three-way tie in their division and had to play it off,&uot; said Trinity coach David King.

Trinity lost two of three games to Franklin for the district title last week.

Plain Dealing swept Trinity last year in the first round of the playoffs.

&uot;They’ve picked up a couple of public school boys and they have real good pitching,&uot; King said. &uot;They’ve 10-run ruled just about everybody. The reason their division ended in a tie is because they had four starters suspended last week and they missed their last two district games. They have a real good ball club. I think they are better than last year. We have our work cut out for us.&uot;

Trinity is 15-7 on the season.

&uot;These kids have played hard and played well,&uot; King said. &uot;I’ve been real pleased with their effort. We’ve got some good pitching performances out of Elliot Meng and Hunter (Dale) has been solid all year.&uot;

Trinity lost to Franklin 9-0 in the first game as Anthony Warner held the Saints to one hit.

Trinity won the second game 6-3 behind Dale, but lost the final game 2-0, collecting only four hits.

&uot;We’ve got to be able to put the ball in play,&uot; King said. &uot;It doesn’t matter how good our pitching is, Plain Dealing is going to score some runs. We have to play good defense and we were doing that up until the Franklin series.&uot;

King said the Saints need to win the first game at home.

&uot;Everybody’s 0-0 now,&uot; he said. &uot;They have a three-and-a-half hour ride so we need to use that to our advantage. It’s just going to take basic, fundamental baseball.&uot;